Ernest Grosjean (1844 – 1936) published “Pièces pour orgue ou harmonium”, a set of 56 pieces in two volumes, in 1902. The first volume contains 33 easy pieces, that can be played without the use of pedals. The fourth piece in the section called “Pièces Funèbres”, pieces intended to be used during funeral services, is a piece called Elévation. Since Grosjean himself indicated these pieces can be played on a harmonium as well as on an organ, I’m still undecided what the best way is to play these pieces. Should I try and emulate a harmonium on the organ? Or should I forget that and play these pieces as organ-like as possible? For this piece a lean more towards the organ-like approach than to the harmonium like approach. That means less sudden sforzandi and more use of the pedals. Some of the bass notes are doubled with the pedals in my performance. For other phrases I use a 16′ register for the left hand part. As with all the pieces in Grosjean’s “Pièces pour orgue ou harmonium” it is a melodious work in a simple three part form (A – B – A).

The recording was done with the Hauptwerk software and the sampleset, made by Voxus, of the Stahlhuth/Jahn organ in the St. Martin’s church, Dudelange.